LA fires: California mosque among thousands of buildings destroyed in wildfires

A mosque that served as a place of worship and cherished community centre for decades has been reduced to rubble by the wildfires ravaging the Los Angeles region.

Dry, hot gusts from the California desert – nicknamed “devil winds” – fanned the flames that consumed Masjid Al-Taqwa on Tuesday night. The mosque is one of thousands of structures that out-of-control fires in Los Angeles devoured this week.

“It is completely gone. There is nothing standing. No pillars. No doors,” said Junaid Aasi, 42, imam at the mosque. “It is devastating. I was just there for the Friday prayer.”

Up to 200 worshippers would attend the mosque on its busiest days, he told The National. Even when it was closed, worshippers could retrieve a key from a nearby halal restaurant to access the building to pray.

“A lot of people feel like the mosque is their home,” said Backer Abu-Jaradeh, who lives close to Masjid Al-Taqwa, where he typically prayed every day.

After a month of fasting, prayer and reflection during Ramadan, many of Al-Taqwa’s members would gather at the mosque to eat together, Mr Abu-Jaradeh and Mr Aasi recalled. “It was like a big family,” Mr Aasi said.

While some of its members worshipped at Al-Taqwa for more than three decades, Mr Aasi said the mosque has been in operation since the late 1970s. It was a modest structure created by the merger of a retail and an office space that became widely revered for its friendly, welcoming atmosphere. There are already efforts to rebuild the mosque, although it is too early for a timeline.

Up to 10 people who attended the mosque regularly lost their homes to the Eaton Fire, which as of Thursday had burnt about 5,700 hectares in the shadow of Mount Wilson, in the San Gabriel Mountains. The Eaton Fire and the Pacific Palisades infernos were the biggest of the wildfires that ripped across the Los Angeles basin this week.

At least seven people are confirmed to have died in the blazes that have destroyed more than 10,000 structures from the Pacific Coast to Pasadena. Many more people have been injured. More than 180,000 people have fled their homes in what is expected to be the most expensive fire disaster in US history.

At an evacuation centre in Pasadena, east of Los Angeles, hundreds of displaced residents took refuge, huddling with pets and children on green camp beds. Food and other essentials were available to those in need.

Farther west, in the upscale Pacific Palisades and Malibu areas, more homes were lost, including those owned by celebrities including Paris Hilton, Billy Crystal, Harrison Ford and Anthony Hopkins. Mansions with manicured lawns and panoramic ocean views were lost in the most destructive fire in the city’s storied history.

“I can’t even comprehend what I am seeing,” Khloe Kardashian said in a post on X. Her celebrity family has homes in Malibu and Calabasas, which are threatened by fires. “This doesn’t seem real. Sending my deepest most sincere gratitude to the brave firefighters, volunteers, neighbours, good Samaritans and first responders working tirelessly to protect lives and communities across California.”

Fires are not new to Los Angeles. But the blame game has never been so severe.

US president-elect Donald Trump wasted little time in criticising California Governor Gavin Newsom, claiming environmental protections for an endangered fish were partly at fault for reports of inadequate water supplies to fight the fires. The complaints about the 7cm fish were deemed a red herring by the governor and his supporters, who said adequate water is available to battle blazes and that Mr Trump’s criticism is without merit.

Meanwhile, rumours of arson permeated many conversations in Southern California, where videos of fires being intentionally lit in urban areas spread across social media. The initial fire in the Pacific Palisades is reported to have started accidentally in the garden of a local resident, who did not adequately prepare. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the fires.

Bridget Francisco Cook, who fled Topanga Canyon with her family to take refuge at a friend’s home in Santa Barbara, said the fires felt different than the ones in the past. The lack of air support, which has been hampered by high winds and low visibility, has flummoxed Ms Cook, who says city authorities appear to be unprepared and unorganised.

Two of her friends fled Pacific Palisades, only to evacuate again on Wednesday night when another fire erupted in the Hollywood Hills, Ms Cook said. About 50 of her friends and acquaintances have lost homes in the fires. “I feel lucky my house is not gone like virtually every other person I know,” she added.

The Pentagon sent aircraft, including helicopters and water-dropping planes, to the area to help contain the fires. But hot, hurricane-strength gusts complicated air operations and firefighting resources are stretched thin.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the disaster the “big one”, adding that the scenes from the largest blaze, the Palisades Fire, are staggering. LA Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley said it was “safe to say that the Palisades Fire is one of the most destructive natural disasters in the history of Los Angeles".

Harsha Thachery, a tourist from Bangalore who was visiting Los Angeles with her husband and two children, said the fires spread at surprising speed on Wednesday. They had been staying at a hotel near Hollywood and were out exploring when they got a call from a friend saying the area was at risk.

“When we got back to the hotel to pack our stuff, I looked out the window and I could see the fire coming down one of the hills, and it was pretty scary,” Ms Thachery told The National. “When we got back to the hotel, it was very chaotic. Everybody was trying to check out and get out.”